Once Upon A Time
by hermyohkneegee
Summary: My first Doctor Who fic! A bit of silliness, really, but I might carry it on. The tenth Doctor visits a small Rose for a talk and to play.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine!

Summary: My first Doctor Who fic! A bit of silliness, really, but I might carry it on. The tenth Doctor visits a small Rose for a talk and to play.

"In a galaxy far, far away.."

"That's not how it goes, silly!"

It was a sunny Thursday afternoon and a small girl, one Rose Tyler, was in the park. Her mother had taken her there, spotted one of her many friends and dashed off, leaving little Rose playing in the sandpit.

A man, tall and gangly in a long coat and a pinstriped suit, had just happened to wander through the park on his way to somewhere and something (Rose hadn't asked him what he was doing quite yet, and she supposed she never would). He had seen her on her own in the sand and meandered over, crouching down near to her.

Little Rose remembered her mother warning her not to talk to strangers and definitely not to take sweeties from them, but he had offered her a boiled sweet from his pocket and she had happily accepted. There was something about the tall man that was comforting- he smelled faintly of something that she only recognised as _home_, but that couldn't be because he smelt nothing like Mum's cheap perfume or chip fat.

He had asked her what she was doing and she had rolled her eyes, because wasn't it obvious that she was making a sandcastle? The castle, to be truthfull, did look just a bit like a large mound of sand with a bit of grass on top for decoration, but the man had immediately seen it and started decorating it with her with sparkling shells from his pockets and stones that Rose had never seen the like of before.

They stayed like that for a while- it could have been ages or it could have been minutes, but Rose, being small, hadn't taken any notice of the time and had eventually coaxed him into telling a story, but he was getting it all wrong.

"How's it supposed to go, then?"

"It's got to be once upon a time! And in a land far away and there has to be a princess!"

"A galaxy is a land far away! You didn't let me get to the bit about the princess!"

"Only 'cos you're rubbish," Rose said, glowering at him, before being distracted by a certain stone which had started flashing different colours, before settling on a bright red.

"Right, so, there's a land far, far away- maybe it's Paris, I dunno- and there's a lovely princess with long golden hair-"

"Like mine?" Rose asked, trying to discourage herself from putting the stone in her mouth. She was supposed to be a _big _girl now, not a silly little baby- after all, seven was a big number!

"Sort of. But longer. And more golden. Are you going to eat that strawberry or am I going to have to? Anyway. This girl- princess, sorry- she worked in a shop, because, um.."

"Because an evil witch cast a spell on her!" Rose cried as she stuffed what had been a stone and was now a fruit into her mouth with only the briefest of wonders how it had turned into a berry.

"Yeah! And one day she was, er, folding the clothes of the evil witch when she was sent down to the basement to get the old witch's money, and d'you know what happened?"

But the man didn't get to tell her what happened, because her mother was charging towards them both with a murderous look on her face.

"What the 'ell are you doing near my Rose!" Screeched Jackie Tyler as she jogged across the grass as fast as her heeled boots would let her.

"He was telling me a story, mum!" Rose cried as she stood up infront of the bloke, as if protecting him. She liked him. His sandcastle decorations were awfully nice.

"Telling her a story! You ought to be ashamed, you pervert, hanging around parks and talking to little girls! I'll call the police!"

"I _was_ only telling her a story! Look, I'll go, no need to phone the police- and if you do, tell 'em that she was talking to the Doctor."

And with that, the man gave Jackie a wide grin and stood up, brushed the sand from his overcoat and strolled off out of the park, hands in his pockets. Of course, Jackie screamed after him- shouting about him being a pervert and for weeks after she'd be on about him to her friends. She was so het up that Rose got wound up, too, and neither of them noticed that the strange blue box that had been at the end of the street had dissapeared when they were walking back.

The Doctor was gone from Rose's life, for now. But something told her she'd see the odd man again. Somewhere.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm ill and am supposed to be resting in bed, so of course I'm at the computer writing fic. I dunno if it's as good as the first part or not. I blame all grammar mistakes on illness, and I'll probably correct them once I'm better.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Duh.

It wasn't long after their first meeting (or perhaps it was) that they next met. This time it was a Monday, and Rose still wasn't at school because of the holidays. She was up the park again, supposed to be meeting Mickey but he hadn't turned up, so she was sitting on a swing ad eating an ice-cream she'd bought with the last of her pocket money.

"That nice?" Asked a not unfamiliar voice from behind her, and Rose jumped, dropping her ice cream. She narrowed her eyes, staring down at it and then giving the Doctor a hurt look.

"You made me drop my ice cream!" She cried accusingly, pointing at it, and he chuckled. "And you aren't supposed to be here!" Added she, looking outraged.

"Who says that, then?" He asks, frowning as he moves to sit on the swing next to her.

"Mum does. Says I'm not meant to talk to you. Say's you're a pervert!" Rose said the last bit with feeling, even though she isn't quite sure what it means.

"Times haven't changed much, then," the Doctor grinned, swinging himself back and forth idly. "Tell you what. I'll buy you another ice cream and then I'll tell you why you're allowed to talk to me."

This seemed a good enough deal for Rose, and she grinned, nodding. "I want a big one!" She warned him, grinning. "With a flake! And the strawberry stuff!"  
"Pig," the Doctor reprimanded with a grin, but trotted off to buy her it anyway. From what Rose could see of him at the ice cream vendor, there seemed to be a bit of trouble with him buying it, and she heard someone talking about an eleven pound coin, but eventually he strolled back over, an enormous ice cream in each hand.

"Here you go, then," he said, handing over one cone and sitting back down next to her. "Right. Now, little Miss Tyler-"

"How d'you know my last name?" Asked Rose, frowning at him. There was ice cream on her nose.

"Magic. Anyway, you shouldn't talk to strangers, but I'm not a stranger anyway, am I?"

"You were, and I still talked to you!"

"Well, don't talk to any other strangers, then. But never mind that now. Why're you here all alone?"

"I'm meeting Mickey!"

"Where is he, then?"

"I dunno. Just not here yet."

"Your mother," said the Doctor, wrinkling his nose up, "Will be worried."

"'S not like I'm alone. You're here."

"Exactly. Don't tell her you've been talkin' to me, will you? She'll beat me up."

Rose giggled. She certainly could imagine mum chasing after him with a handbag and screaming bloody murder. "She don't even know your name, she can't find you."

"I said I was the Doctor, didn't I?" He asked, frowning as he stuffed a whole flake into his mouth at once.

"Well, yeah, but you didn't tell her your _name_."

"That is my name," he said, looking slightly offended.

"Oh," said Rose. "All right."

The Doctor smiled. The trust of children was always nice. He was used to getting into arguments over what his real name was. It wasn't like they'd be able to pronounce it, anyway. "D'you want to hear the end of that story, then?"

"No," said Rose, painfully bluntly. "You're rubbish at stories. I'll tell you one, though."

"Go on, then."

Rose started talking. She told him about wonderful things and horrible things- of things that he knew about, the monsters at the end of the universe, the rock at the edge of the world, of horrible monsters who could only be killed by gold, of whole planets devoted to being prisons, of slaves. She also told him of a robotic dog, and a beautiful woman who had two faces, of a woman with blonde hair who saves the world from a bit of meat hanging on the ceiling, and when she was finished both of their ice creams had long gone.

"Where'd you learn about all that?" Asked the Doctor, quietly.

"I dunno. I dreamt some of it. My mum told me some of it. She said when she was a kid this bloke with curly hair and a mile-long scarf told her stories, until her mum found out."

"That was _her_?" The Doctor asked, incredulously, but Rose takes no notice, because she has stood up.

"I'm going home. It's tea time."

With that, the Doctor was left quite alone, swinging until all of the children and irritating mothers had gone home, and when the sky was dark and full of stars, he went home himself.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Once Upon A Time (Chapter Three)

Length: 815 words.

Genre: Humour

Rating: U

Characters: Little!Rose, Ten.

Summary: Rose meets the Doctor for a third time and finds him fighting off man-eating moss. Author's Note: More fluffy rubbish! I should probably put a plot in here, somewhere. And get a beta reader.

"How come you're here?" said a small voice from behind the Doctor. He nearly jumped out of his skin, and turned around to stare down at the owner of the voice. "I said," said little Rose irritably. "How come you're here?"

"Who, me? Saving the world," he said matter-of-factly, as if that was the end to the matter, before turning about to go back to tapping on the bricks of the wall he was in front of. "And what're you doing here?"

Rose pointedly ignored his question and instead stood there, arms crossed. "You're tapping bricks. You have leaves in your hair. You don't look like you're saving the world."

"Bricks," the Doctor said, spinning around again and nearly banging his arm into the wall. "Are very dangerous. Eat people, bricks do. You've grown," he added as an afterthought.

"You haven't," Rose noted, peering at him. "You've shrunk."

"Saving the world does that," the Doctor agreed, leaning back against the wall and folding his arms. "It's something about the polarity of the neutron flow. Or I got put in a cauldron by some natives. How old are you, now?"

"Eight and a half," Rose said proudly, standing up straighter. "See? And my hair's long. That moss has teeth," she added, with only faint alarm. "I thought you said it was the bricks that ate people?"

"They both do," the Doctor said, trying to wrestle the moss from the wall with one hand and looking for his sonic screwdriver in his pocket with the other. "It's a conspiracy. Along with the rulers. You know how teachers ask you if you've used a ruler? It's because they snap in half and attack you."

"What's a conspiracy?" Rose asked, watching as the moss tried to bite the Doctor's nose off. It ended up just latching onto his finger.

"Doesn't matter. Are you going to help or are you just going to stand there?"

"It's _moss_," Rose said, incredulously, but joined in trying to get the thing off his finger. It seemed to be rather adamant on staying on him, and they ended up getting some very odd looks from passers-by on the way to the shops. Eventually, though, Rose ended up flicking it in just the right place, and it dropped off harmlessly.

"There we go," the Doctor said cheerily, stooping to pick up the moss. "Anyway. What _are _you doing here?"

"Shopping," Rose informed him, as if the whole episode of man-eating plants had been nothing out of the ordinary. She did learn rather fast, considering they'd only met three times. "We need bread and milk and mum said something about her needing a new bloke but I don't think she meant for me to buy that."

"No," the Doctor agreed, frowning as they started to walk. "It wouldn't do, buying men in the shops. They'd fight in the dairy aisle and open all the jars. Why're you out shopping on your own?"

"I'm not," she said, as if it was obvious. "Mum's in the shop already. Where're you from?" She asked abruptly, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Everywhere," she Doctor said, sounding a little preoccupied at the mention of her mother being in the shop, which was just around the corner from where they were now. "I've got some, er, work to do, world to save, all of that.." He said, looking as if he was about to back away.

"Are you scared of my mum?" Rose asked, staring at him. He laughed a little too loudly and a little too quickly.

"No! No, of course not! Hah! Scared of your mum! No, I just have, er, work to do, you see, paperwork, monsters-"

"Rose! Rose!" Cried a horribly familiar voice. The Doctor winced. Too late. He raced over towards a nearby tree, scrabbling up it with impressive speed. "Rose, where are you, sweetheart? Oh! There you are. I _told_ you not to wander off, didn't I?" Jackie scolded her daughter, sauntering over to her. Or strutting. The Doctor wasn't quite sure which one it was, and he was too busy trying not to fall off his branch to care. "You might see that _weirdo_ again, and what did I tell you about him?"

"He's a dirty old man and I'm not to talk to him," Rose rattled off as they started walking back towards the flat, both nattering on about how Rose wasn't to wander off anymore and quite why. Rose only looked back at him the once, giving him a secretive little wave before they turned a corner.

The Doctor waited for a good amount of time until he got down from his perch on a branch. Better safe than sorry, after all. And when he did get down it was because a giant blob of moss was slowly squirming it's way across the road.

Oh well, he thought, and went after it.


End file.
